Kalluru - Weaving Stories In Silk - II

By Tharangini

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Thank you for joining me from part 1.

The Narrow entrance

The Power looms in  the room.

We were taken to see the weaving itself. It was just a few meters walk and it was impossible to imagine how such incredible weaves came out of the 2 small rooms we visited. One housed two power looms clanking in synchronized rhythm and the other had a handloom setup. 

Vasanthamma at her 
handloom setup

One of the pivotal parts of the handloom
is the 'shuttle' or 'lalli'. The tip has to be perfect,
else the weaving gets damaged. 

Vasanthamma, an experienced weaver was at the pedals of the handloom setup. It was fascinating to see how she managed to weave these threads into a gorgeous design in a seemingly effortless manner. 

A saree with a height of 45 inches needs about 5000-6000 lines of threads to cover that height.

But even with all that effort, a handloom weaver can manage to weave out only 2 sarees each week. But she is so used to the handloom and its design styles that she finds power loom very difficult to understand and work on. 

Weaving in progress

The result

Her son, Suresh, however, is adept at power loom and he manages to weave around 5-6 sarees each week. He can manage handling 2 power looms simultaneously. But that also needs constant monitoring. Even if a single thread breaks, he has to stop the loom, reconnect the thread and then continue the weaving.

The design cards

The design cards at work in the loom.

I asked Mahadeviah about the designs for these sarees. He told us that the designs come from Bangalore on a daily basis. It either comes in a pen drive to be used in the machines - that’s the electronic jacquard -or it comes in the form of a hand punch jacquard, where the design is punched in cards and the cards are used in both the handlooms as well as the power looms. 

The first setup of the design is the tricky part. It needs to be done with full attention and concentration. But once the design is set up, it can go on for a long time. In fact, Jayaram told us that one of his designs has been running for almost 20 years now. All he has to do is feed in different color combinations to bring out a grand look. 

The journey of a saree before it reaches the consumer is pretty interesting. It starts with the farmer who cultivates the silkworms for the sarees. Next it goes to the reeler for reeling the threads. The traders take it from there and the twisters buy it from the traders. After twisting, it goes back to the traders. The master weavers then take it from the traders and give it to the dyers.  From the dyers, it goes to the weavers. Then when the saree is ready, they give it to the wholesale dealers. These dealers give it to the retailers and from there it reaches the consumers. 

With fewer people wearing sarees these days, I asked about their impact on the weaving industry. But both Jayaram and Mahadeviah were very confident that no matter how much western influence was there all around, the enchantment of sarees is still continuing undiminished.

To prove that, Dev did a quick calculation. He told that Jayaram alone sends 600 sarees each week to Bangalore. If there are around 20 people like him in Kalluru, that itself comes to 12000 sarees each week. Other families in Kalluru may send 20 sarees each week. So, on an average 20000-25000 sarees go to Bangalore each week. This adds up to a lakh sarees each month from Kalluru alone. With this kind of demand, it can be easily said that the popularity of sarees is still on an upward climb.

Now, with the fantastic roads and Kalluru being a short 2-hours drive from Bangalore with plenty of good restaurants on the way, a lot of people are using this opportunity to turn their saree buying into a day outing.

There are around 35-40 outlets in Kalluru itself.  We had visited Banashankri Silks & Sarees owned by Jayaram.K.N. If you need any help in getting to Kalluru you can get in touch with Dev too on +91 91649 22777

The next time you need to buy sarees in bulk and at reasonable costs, think about Kalluru. You’ll be glad you did.

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